my bookshelf

It's hard to judge old books by modern cultural standards but I did like this one. The best parts were in Jonathan Harker's castle, super atmospheric! After that it slowed down a little too much. I really enjoyed how NICE everyone was to each other, I didn't expect that.

The campiest of the camp queer ode to classic horror and scifi. Really had fun with it. My only complaint is that most of the characters had some point where they totally should've died yet somehow survived, but hey, it's camp!! And I loved the cast enough I was happy to see them keep chugging along :)

A very tough read, deeply personal, a "modern" take on vampirism applied to abusive family relationships. Super good, I don't think I could read any more though.

It talks about trans people at a very dark point in history (Germany, immediately before and after the Third Reich) yet always spotlights the human, never feeling like misery porn. Taught me a lot about a period of history I didn't know much about, but now I have reverence for a much broader range of queer activists who came before me. Beautiful.

An intricate bog of worldbuilding that clicks into place by the final act in an incredible way that sent my mind reeling. Loved it. What's a positive term for purple prose??

Every time I read a Tokarczuk book, reality feels a little more real. She highlights the small things in life and connects them to philosophical nuggets of ideas so well! Love her prose.

A little thin on the details, but that's just queer history. I'm really glad such a sweeping chronicle of this amazing woman's life exists. She's a testament to the ideal of living kinder and LOUDER!

What word can I even use but "romp"? I only half-understood the mechanics but the "luck snap-back" idea was so much fun, and the ending got nice and poignant. Nothing exists, nothing matters, so everything we feel and perceive might as well exist and matter! Fuck identity denialists!

Olga Tokarczuk continues to be amazing; slow, vibey, and surprisingly gay. This book's intersection of queerness, feminism, and history is executed perfectly.

Just a good standard-issue Who story, that continues to characterize Sam pretty well. The ending did go off the rails a bit.

I really liked the worldbuilding here, though it became a bit predictable near the end. Still, if we have to do the Humans Can't Coexist With Another Species cycle-of-violence plotline over again, at least the Silurian proxy is rendered with depth and agency.

Slow but worth it, a book that doesn't purport to show a better world, at least so much as it shows a completely different political structure, warts and all, and allows the reader's imagination to run wild. Every bit as thought-provoking as "advertised", maybe moreso by the fact that it hardly acts like it's got all the answers for a perfect society.

A fun mermaid horror book on the surface of it, but one that definitely could've gone further with many of its concepts. There's just not enough realized potential to justify the page count. Still, it spooked me, so points for that!

A difficult but important read; I'd thought about a lot of the fatphobia-related topics this book touches on on an intellectual level, but this book definitely helped me break down internal biases I hadn't realized I still had. It's ridiculous how much emphasis we place on this single aspect of people's multifaceted bodies.

A grand 60s-style Who science fiction adventure, chock-full of fun ideas; they don't necessarily coalesce into a single story, but it's worth it for the bits and pieces you get along the way, such as the psychedelic "crazy London" and a climax involving way too many computer menus.

A psychedelic delve into the world of nature, filled with unexpected cryptids. Would've loved for this one to go on longer and expand on some of its ideas, but I very much enjoyed the cozy setting and snatches of worldbuilding we got.

Ok, so number one, Baum lost the sauce in this book, unsurprisingly considering he only wrote this much Oz for financial reasons. It's so anticlimactic. Number two, Oz is often problematic or generally disturbing, but in this book it's way more out in the open. Even my favorite character in the book, the Glass Cat, gets BRAINWASHED at the end and it's a good thing???

This one's a chaotic and awesome testament to everything Arcbeatle Press does! 800 pages of fun stories from all corners of this indie publisher's œuvre.

On one end, a grimy, vicious verbal attack on modern-day America. On the other, painfully lovable characters. The vibes are impeccable. These stories are free and you should go read them right now or I will GET you

This franchise (when it's not off being problematic) is cozy, breezy, and fun to revisit after having loved the anime years ago.

What starts out as a really cool nonfiction book about deep-sea ecology turns into a depressing read about environmental disasters society needs to fight, unsurprising but sad anyway.

The "evil narrator" gimmick was cool and there were lots of strong moments – in particular Cwej's relationship to the fourth-wall breaks – but I can't say I understand most of what happened here…

Oh god, I should have listened when they said you could just skip this one… Continuity wank is one thing but this was just boring!! Curse my completionist brain!

Brilliant, crushing philosophical scifi. The worldbuilding and themes of human faith are incredible. I read this cuz I'm a Parties Are for Losers fan and it was everything I hoped for.

It's Victorian gothic queer horror, what more is there to say? The length could've been doubled and it'd be even better!

Peak soft sci-fi and an indisputable triumph of Cwej the series, and appreciably standalone. Doesn't quite fit into Cwej: The Series as a whole but it's brilliant in its own right.

I came in looking for a book about Birobidzhan, but this more chronicled the life of one specific Jewish writer with a complicated relationship to Russia. It was definitely pretty interesting, but not really what I set out to learn…

Airy, clean prose and an eye for quiet surrealism! Really really enjoyed my time with this anthology.

I sped through this fun folk horror – it had super propelling pacing with lots of atmosphere, and I appreciated the focus on Black history and historical research. I'd rec it even though the ending was suuuper underwhelming.

My Texan girlfriend told me this book was accurate which is really funny. Also despite the title it kinda becomes a court drama somehow???

Taught me about Uruguayan history and queerness. The emotional arc was really strong, but the prose style was like a flowery purple curtain in my face that I couldn't fucking see through.

This book holds your hand, takes it slow, and stops to smell the roses. I needed this in my life I think. It's so beautiful, soft, and thoughtful at every scintillating moment.

This is what Who should be. This book gives the characters such interiority and lets them be affected by the plot while still zipping along and being a fun, engrossing read.

The anthology format for Faction Paradox finally finds its stride here, with a well-arranged theme and storyline and some fantastic individual yarns.

This was shockingly boring, given all the reasons I should be biased towards it. The nice-but-not-nice villain Zog was super entertaining though.

Eh. I kept expecting more than the base premise and then not getting more than the base premise. Shame, I really love Faction Hollywood as a concept.

Didn't quite make sense plot-wise but it was so so sweet, which about sums up Wylder's writing. Taught me to love the character of Jhe Sang Mi.

The best of the City of the Saved line in a while. Not sure what Kelly Hale was smoking here (or ever) but Kara Dennison's pseudo-grimdark story was nothing short of awesome.

The best CotS anthology, not a single miss here. Linguistics and lesbianism?! Read it!

Wild, wild worldbuilding. Polychrome comes in at one point, says "hey, go be nice to immigrants, also you should be more colorist", then fucks off.

Love Arcbeatle for its diverse array of voices and stories which is on full display here. Special round of applause to Sean Dillon's "The Thing in the Woods".

A miscellany of stories, some alright, some great. I'm glad these assorted Cwej stories are out in the world, though some probably deserve a more proper showing.

Freaked me out like not much does. The themes come together so well; "fear of the unknown" style horror is a hard line to toe but this book does it very very well. I wasn't entirely fond of the ending Johnny got, but Navidson's story just unfolded and wrapped up so well.

This story is unfortunately pretty stereotypical and kind of racist in the way it writes alien races, but it's got some nice messaging about acceptance of differences underneath it all, and this novelization had some really smart improvements over the source material.

Good old Factiony fun; nothing new but I can't fault some entertaining culty weirdness.

Not a King fan generally but if prompted I will rant about how gay this story is actually. Underneath it all there's some fantastic commentary about the intersection of Americana, car culture, nostalgia, and gender roles.

Lawrence why did you have to undo the happy ending from Against Nature just so you could make cheap shots at Funko pops. I'm gonna go pretend this book doesn't exist and live my life happily.

It's the online version with a fancy new cover and some changes that make the story shine! The added content with Sunshine, the removal of the afterlife stuff, and the changed climax brought so much new life to this already-great story.

Finally some good fucking plural rep in the Doctor Who universe! It's fanfic but it's got a plural dinosaur Time Lord! Super cozy and a must-read for plural fans of Who.

The Cwej series hits its stride and some wonderful character-building plays out. Hornby's prose isn't quite my thing, and it gets weirdly dark for no reason at points, but I just love what he did with Larles and Kwol here.

Snakes are my favorite animal, they're gay in this book, plus I got to learn about Singaporean queer culture, its struggles and vibrancies. Had a great time with this book, found it cozy at points, cringeworthy in others, and overall so cathartic.

It's fun enough, more Faction Paradox, and I appreciate the open submission, as in the first volume. The final story in this one built on Faction lore and continuity in some really fun ways, my favorite Faction story in a while.

Blair Bidmead writes Faction books like candy, they're fun brightly-colored adventures with all kinds of weird corners to dig into. I would have loved to spend so much more time in all of the settings this book zoomed through.

It's pretty simplistic, but that's kids' lit for you; I'm just glad a kids' book about a trans person discovering himself exists, and the bits about the MC's queer uncle got me emotional.

It's more focused on having cool prose than anything else, but that's okay. The story is very abstract and not entirely coherent, but I enjoyed being taken along for the ride.

The beautiful absurdity that is Oz continues. Why does the Wizard of Oz carry twin revolvers? Why does he happily burn a man alive in this book? We may never know

This one's not quite as entertainingly crazy as the other ones but it's got the lovable Button-Bright and the daughter of the rainbow, Polychrome, so it works out.

"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" is a novel approach for a series debut, but it certainly means this anthology is never boring – and in the end it all comes together really well.

Mind-bending short science fiction that gets you in a state of existential dread, questioning your humanity. I love stories that play with reality and identity like this. A personal favorite.

Mm mm im the noodle man buy my book yes im the noodle man mm

I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!!! This franchise is so GOOD until they decide to do A WHOLE BOOK OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT FOR NO REASON. UGHHHH.

It's an April Fools anthology, as with the Noodle Man this is just entertaining silliness. It's become more entertaining in retrospect as I familiarize myself with the characters featured, one by one.

This was a dense departure from my usual reading. I like his takes on cultural relativism, though some of his other ideas got pretty out-there.

A charity anthology all about the Doctor from Scream of the Shalka – some of the stories hit, some didn't, but it's about the spirit of the thing. I'm just so happy to see more of this incarnation.

Could've used a lot more narrative clarity, but the character work was really well-done. I'm a big fan of Rachel and Auteur from Faction Paradox, both of whom get big parts in this.

We get to explore Oz some more! What do you mean they have a quarantine town for people who take too long to say things?? Oh my god, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry move to Oz! Adorable!!!

An eye-opening take on Israel & Palestine, past and present, and the roots of a lot of modern Israeli attitudes. It's always somehow worse than you think, huh???

Loved seeing a modern take on an already-interesting concept. I really wish there wasn't so much baggage attached to BBV these days because I'm very fond of the Cyberon series.

Changed my whole perspective on red states, especially queerness within them; made me question a lot of my ingrained prejudices. Singlehandedly convinced me not to flee the US long as I'm privileged enough to be able to stay. There are points this book glosses over, but they're things you'll hear everywhere else – this is bringing something new to the conversation.

Not mind-blowing, just a fun madcap adventure, and that's what Blair Bidmead does best.

Lance Parkin's writing is just so dull to me, I'm sorry. I couldn't get into this, really.

90% of this was absolutely beautiful and swept me up in its imagery and emotional arc, then the ending turned super groomery. Urgh.

The absurdities of Oz continue to make for an incredible read. All of the Ev-related lore in this book is deeply upsetting. Baum's mind is a wonderfully strange one.

It's like the original, but with more character insight and without the stiff animation! I love the incarnation of the Doctor in this book – he's a unique spin on the character with lots of potential.

Ups and downs, without enough of a coherent theme; the meme squid was just awesome, the part where JK Rowling epically roasted Donald Trump not so much.

I love Suzie Costello and was excited for a book about her; and this book is a cool adventure, but strips away a lot of what makes her interesting, sadly.

Absolutely bombarded with character introduction stories but the writing was pretty!

There's a lot I could talk about here but for now I'll just say: I love IM Foreman!! His character is one of my new favorite things in the DW universe.

This book is an absurd madcap ball of fun whenever it's not trashing modern Who for some reason.

It's a cute classic story that we all know and love. But it really gets good in the sequels…

So many diverse, vivid worlds, some haunting, some cozy, some both, all incredible. One of my favorite Faction releases, if also very un-Factiony mostly.

Awesome, mind-bending stuff with a super zippy prose style that feels like a blockbuster. The ending gets a little weird but that's what the print version is for!

It's nice that it gets back on track telling stories about people adjusting to the City, but something didn't click for me in most of these stories.

I told you Oz gets good in the sequels!! It's Oz but TRANSER and it has my BOY Jack Pumpkinhead!!! I love this shit it's so silly!!!

I love the Doctor Who movie and the book was just as fun, including some awesome differences based on the original script draft. Get this version, not the 2021 rewrite!

A neat anthology with some really solid stories – has its finger on the pulse of the franchise to a T.

A bit dull, just didn't seem to capture the luster of the City's beautiful diversity, spending time going off on weird tangents instead. I did like the Richard III story though!

The prose style really wasn't for me, but the fights were cool, and in a lot of ways it felt just like a JoJo story, so points for that.

This one had some interesting stories but really didn't leave an impression by the end due to the length of most of them, though it was enjoyably vibey.

A very mixed anthology but certainly intriguing for its place in franchise hi— wait who's that at the door shit gtg sorry

This was fine but just made me wish I was watching the anime again…

I have a friend who describes this as "the orientalist one". She's not wrong. I am a sucker for epistolaries though so it was ok when not focusing on Richard Burton. I just shouldn't have read the ending on election day '24…

This was a nice little story, surprisingly sweet at points in the face of dystopia and bigotry.

This one was cute. I really liked the premise of an entire detective agency staffed with Sherlock Holmeses, but I probably would've gotten more out of it were I some kind of Holmes aficionada.

In retrospect I can appreciate the story it was trying to tell, but the writing just fell so flat. Sorry Cwej, I like the rest of your series I prommy.

There is nothing in this book to make me appreciate anything it's doing. It just exists. Nazis fighting Ancient Romans, who am I supposed to root for? Why am I supposed to care? I hated this thing. That's the beauty of series as narratively diverse as Faction Paradox, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Lesbians!!! Sword fighting lesbians! Versus a lesbian time machine!!! Go off!!!

This one's considered one of Miles's masterworks for a reason. Super readable narration, engrossing and tragic characters, wild wild worldbuilding, it's got it all. And the climax!!

Why the fuck is there a steamy Sherlock Holmes romance crime drama novel in my Faction Paradox

A fun and trippy satirical horror that made me feel like I was right back on my college campus, for better or for worse. Heavy stuff but a good read. Got a bit "not like other girls"–y at times though.

Having a complex plot is ok, but it was couched in so much obfuscatory language that it just didn't work for me. Also this author jams sex onto every other page for some reason, no matter the context, and I hate it.

A classic Milesian lore extravaganza, but Doctor Who just happens to show up in this one. Only Lawrence Miles could make the fucking Krotons so, so interesting.

This one dumps you into cultures and doesn't explain shit no matter whether the given chapter is set in Texas, Tenochtitlan, or an alien pocket universe. It's a good time but it left my brain swimming!

Some stories worked, others didn't, but hey, it's an anthology. This captured the vibrancy of the City wonderfully.

This is the epitome of everything I love about Faction Paradox. Cosmic yet personal, trippy yet grounded, and a fascinatingly horrible cast of characters. An all-timer.

A BEAUTIFUL COSMIC WORLDBUILDING EXTRAVAGANZA!! Find a copy online and read this INSTANTLY!!! I love it to bits. It's the holy grail of Faction Paradox for a reason.

Lawrence Miles is soapboxing his aughts-era pessimism obnoxiously hard but beyond that the structure and story works incredibly??? Tiffany Korta will stick with me for a long time.

A culturally rich galaxy-sized afterlife with lots and lots of awesome worldbuilding! Give this one a go!

I'm a big Milgram fan so of course I would like this to an extent. That said… the idea of 5 interconnected murders was cool but the plot really had to bend over backwards to make it work, and the translation was super bland.

I liked this one a lot more than the first, the characters were super interesting! It was still a little silly but that's ok.